The Kevin Sheehan Show - Cooley Film + Howell Thoughts

Episode Date: January 5, 2023

Cooley and Kevin today with Cooley's "film" of the Browns' loss which included in-depth analysis of Carson Wentz, the defense, Scott Turner's game-plan/play-calling and more. Also, Cooley on Sam Howell, the Damar Hamlin situation and more. Factor 60% off your first box at factor75.com/KevinDC60 Rocket Money Cancel unwanted subscriptions – and manage your expenses the easy way – by going to RocketMoney.com/KevinDCChime Start your credit journey with Chime at chime.com/KevinDC EVPN Get 3 months free with a one-year package at expressvpn.com/KevinDC Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Cheehan Show. Here's Kevin. I am here today. Kooley is with us today. So Tommy will be on tomorrow with us.

Please rate us and review us. Boy, some of you really took it to heart yesterday, and I really appreciate it. I mean, we're one of the top 10 football shows on Apple's podcast charts in America. So as I mentioned yesterday, a lot of that has to do with all. audience size, the majority of it has to do with audience size, but a lot of it has to do

with the ratings and reviews. So if you haven't rated and reviewed us, keep it coming. Five stars, quick one to two sentence review. So many of you, including Pete, say, I listen every single time Cooley's got a film breakdown and then I make my kids listen to the podcast because they're football players. Keep it up. Appreciate that, Pete. Cooley is with us today. he did watch the Browns game. He's done some film on the Browns game, and we will get to that. But, you know, the story of the week in football was Demar Hamlin, and the news, as we're starting to record this podcast, is incredibly encouraging.

Apparently, he has shown remarkable improvement. They're still listing him in critical condition. The actual team, the bills put out a statement that he's demonstrated to appear to be neurologically intact. His lungs are continuing to heal. He's making steady progress and has shown substantial improvement, which is just incredible.

But I'll just start by asking you. First of all, were you watching the game when it happened or not? No, but I was immediately watching the game after it happened. I had 20 people call me and asked me if I'd seen what happened, and then I followed, which I shouldn't have followed. I followed on Twitter, and I think a lot of people did, but then it was just frustrating to follow on Twitter because I really was only concerned with D'Mar. I was only concerned with his health with what was going on with him.

And you do see all these updates, but it's hard to weed through that. I don't know. It was scary. It was sad. It was scary. I thought immediately about his mom, his family, you know, who he was as a player. I hate that. I hated that, Kev. Did you, I mean, you've been on the field, obviously, when there have been serious injuries.

Actually, let me ask you, what was the most serious injury you were ever on a field for? Nothing like that. Well, I know that. The other night was... The scary ones that are anywhere close to that, which actually end up towards the end of my career, what weren't quite as scary is the concussion or the knockout where they're out cold. Like, oh, my God, he's asleep. But that ended up being the concussion that was usually less impactful than the concussion where they were in La La Land right after the hit.

Oh, really? Is that true? I don't, I can't. I can't give you neurological advice, but it seemed to me over a long period of time playing football and seeing concussions that when someone went to sleep immediately from the hit, they woke up and usually felt okay. There wasn't this insane groginess and a delayed recovery for those guys. The next day, it was like they hit the reset button. And again, I don't know if that's true. I've never followed up on that scientific research.

But that was always, especially early in my career, that was scary to see someone go out. Do you remember a specific person, player? not off-hand so it was nobody that I was close to obviously I should remember my memory of a lot of games is not good but it was really it was nothing like this I mean you'd always see you watch this Hamelin well it wasn't because you watched this Hamelin hit

and it doesn't look like a big hit it does look like blunt force to the chest but it doesn't look like excessive blimp force it doesn't look like it certainly doesn't look like he gets in the head which he doesn't I mean upon watching it the first time and I turned and I looked at my wife and I said, he just had a heart attack on Phil. And she said, what?

I'm like, he had a heart attack. He didn't get hit in the head. I don't know what else would have caused him to do that. And that ended up being what happened, but that's, uh, I'm so glad that he's doing well. And I'm so, you know, I will say this about one of my, one of the best things that I, I was watched through my entire career was how caring and how great the medical staff. was for our team and for other teams, and what an amazing job they did to save his life. Oh, my God. I mean, I was thinking about that today when I read this report.

I was thinking that as near tragic as this was, if he were to make a full recovery, and of course, we're days, if not weeks away more likely than not from learning that. Maybe we're not. I don't know. I'm not a doctor. but the heroes in this are going to be those first responders, which were the people that were working for both of those teams that responded on the field and gave him a chance for a recovery.

And on some level, given all of the negativity around the NFL and the safety of the NFL, and we've seen, obviously, for many years now, the improvements, the attempt to improve, the safety, the legislation of a lot of the unsafe hits and things, blocks, et cetera, out of the game. It will be, you know, I hate to put it in these terms. It's not what I mean to say, but I think most of you will follow along.

If this man survives and lives a normal life, it's going to be an incredible testament to what the NFL has set up from an immediate response, an immediate medical response standpoint. I mean, I remember that night I was flipping around because I really wanted, you know, I wanted news and I wanted information and I wanted medical information. And Mike Tarrico was on MSNBC. And Karen and I were watching it, you know, unfold together. And Tariko's great in general, just as an interview.

He's so good. And he said, you know, I spent some time. learning about what the NFL does in terms of how they prepare for a game medically in the event of a very serious injury or medical situation. And he said, you know, it's not a total exaggeration to say that this, you know, that DeMar Hamlin couldn't have been in a better spot for immediate, you know, to be immediately attended to by people who were likely prepared. to handle what they saw.

And, you know, it turns out he may have been right. Knock on wood. I wouldn't disagree in any way. The people that surrounded us were unbelievable. Our doctors were unbelievable. The medical staff was amazing, the training staff. For whatever criticism, any training staff ever receives about whether or not someone's coming back on the right time for injury or other, those, every one of the trainers

involved with Washington when I was there cared about us, cared about our well-being. would have done anything to help us in any way. I felt that way from day one. I feel that way today. And I'm really impressed with how they handled that situation. So, you know, a lot of the conversation over the last day, day and a half has been, you know, and as I've mentioned before, and I talked about this the other day, we can all do two things at once here. Is, you know, there's an $18 billion business to move forward with.

and there is a game to either be made up or not made up, and there are playoffs that we are a week and a half away from. And the two teams involved in this game were two playoff teams, and it was a very significant game with respect to AFC seating, etc. Well, Tommy and I talked about it yesterday, or the day before yesterday. I think I updated it on the podcast. Well, pro football talk actually had what I think is the latest news, as we are recording this podcast anyway.

And that is that the NFL is seriously considering not resuming that game and essentially having the Bills and the Bengals end up with 16 game regular seasons and then it'll be about winning percentage, which does mean if they do it that way, that even though Buffalo and Cincinnati both beat Kansas City, they would have to play at Kansas City in an AFC title game, Buffalo, even if they ended up with the same number of losses. There apparently was some discussion about playing the AFC championship game if it's Buffalo in Kansas City on a neutral field. There's been some discussion about a wacky schedule in which the NFC would start their playoffs next week with the Bengals and the Bills and the Bills completing their game.

And then the AFC would go the following week and then you'd be back on track. with the divisional round after that, and they would just lose one of the two weeks between the championship games and the Super Bowl. But pro football talk thinks at least their latest reporting is that what the NFL is going to do is they're going to play week 18 this weekend, and they're not going to resume and finish the Bills Bengals game,

and that will be that. You know, Kansas City will obviously be a, if they beat the Raiders, will be a major beneficiary of that, being able to play home games. Cincinnati, would also be in a position now, even though if they had beaten Buffalo and played Buffalo in the second round or an AFC title game, they'll now host potentially a divisional round game because of that. I don't really have a problem with that.

It's the COVID thing where they promised us that they weren't going to play games that they couldn't play. And if that were the case, it was going to be winning percentage. Now, the COVID-year-coolie, every single game ended up being played. But I think this is just one of those incredibly, incredibly rare occurrences where, you know, it's a competitive disadvantage. But my God, the most important thing is that this man actually survives and has a normal life. And if Cincinnati and Buffalo have to go on the road to Arrowhead, not necessarily fair, understood. But I'm okay with that. I'm okay with any solution they come up with trying to make it fair,

but it's the end of the season. There's just not a lot of room here to maneuver. No problem with the game not being played at all. In the moment, had I been on the field, there's no way I would have wanted to resume play in that game. I wouldn't have felt comfortable with it. I don't think anybody on the field felt comfortable with it. They knew he wasn't breathing.

I can't imagine any scarier thing for anybody involved in the game and for everyone watching the game. So never did I think, wow, this game should be finished or played. The expectation I would have had had I been on that field was we're done. This is not going to happen tonight. And they were. And they were. But that said, you can't replay the game this late in the year. Because that is the biggest competitive disadvantage to both of the.

these teams. Because you're talking about beating each other up for another three quarters so close to another game. So really my thought process would be that replaying the game or finishing the game would be

essentially be out of the equation. I was sitting thinking about it yesterday. I remember the old school feeding coin toss in high school where one coach would drive halfway and meet the other coach, and they just flip a coin. Yeah, like conference for the conference tournament or whatever.

Yeah, for the conference, like, but seriously, just go flip a coin. I guarantee you not anybody in, I can't imagine anybody that in the league at this point would have a problem if they said we need a result. We'll flip a coin. That's, you know, I don't see that. If I'm Buffalo and there's no chance, and, and, and, and, not playing the game means I'm absolutely going to Kansas City. I'd go flip a coin. Well, let me, let me, you said that you wouldn't play the game, want to play the game.

Well, obviously not that night. Obviously not this week. No, and then I don't think it's fair. Like, you can postpone, they could postpone the Pro Bowl. But still, then you're playing another game that everyone else isn't playing. And the other thing that's crazy is, like, no, no, no, you're just, one of them could have a buy. Well, but hold on.

So you play for the Buffalo Bills right now. Okay, you guys have had this magical season. You're one of the Super Bowl favorites. You lost a playoff game last year at Arrowhead against the Chiefs. You went to Arrowhead this year and you beat the Chiefs. And your teammate, by the way, is now improving. And it's, you know, I don't want to call it miraculous because I don't know if that's really the word that would describe it.

But he's improving. and right now the arrow appears to be headed up. And they're saying, look, we're going to play week 18. You're going to play this game against the Patriots on Sunday. The Bengals are going to play their game against the Ravens. And then next weekend, we're going to resume the game that you had against Cincinnati, down 7-3 in the second quarter. The NFC is going to play their first round, their wild card round,

three games, and you guys are going to have the fourth game. so that you end up with 17 regular season games in the proper seating. So you're telling me that if that were presented to you at that point, you wouldn't want to do that? Not necessarily because if Buffalo went on to win that game, and they're at 13 and 3 in Beakam City and win again, then you're playing another game against Cincinnati that would have been a bye week. Well, no, no, no.

You would be playing You would be playing your week 18 game this week For everybody else, it's their 17th game For you, it's your 16th game So you're not going to play the first round of the ASC playoffs? Well, you won't if you have a buy But what I'm saying is that the So let me

Let me take you through it, okay? Slow it down, I'm slow. This upcoming weekend is the final regular season weekend of the season. All right? So Buffalo is scheduled to play New England. And by the way, there's been discussion about that game being played, but they have to play that game. Cincinnati is scheduled to play Baltimore this weekend.

So you go through all of the week 18 games. And then what you have is you've got two teams that have played 16 games and everybody else has played 17, right? Cincinnati and Buffalo have 16 complete games. They don't have 17. And if you were to cut it off at that point and say, you're not going to continue to play, and Kansas City beats the Raiders on Saturday, then Buffalo is the two seed, Kansas City is the one, Cincinnati's the three,

and it becomes unfair to both of those teams. By the way, it also is a bit unfair to Baltimore, who with a win over Cincinnati would have a chance to win the division and play a home game. But one of the solutions that was proposed, even though pro football talks reporting that that's not what they're going to go with, nothing's been finalized, is that after this weekend's worth of games, next weekend, which would have been the first full-fledged playoff weekend, right? Saturday the 14th, Sunday the 15th, and then the Monday night game that they now have in the postseason. And what was

floated around yesterday is that the NFC would have their three wild card games next weekend. And Cincinnati and Buffalo would play. and the AFC playoffs would take a buy that week. And then the following week, you would then have a completed AFC season with the proper seating. The following week, the AFC would play their three wild card games, and the NFC would have a buy. I understand. So you're pushing the season back one week. Exactly. But you're doing it in a way in which, you know, not every, each conference is playing each weekend for the postseason. It's NFC, then AFC.

and then you're back on schedule. So you're still getting four games each weekend. Well, no, actually the second weekend would just be three. It would just be the three AFC. Right, because you wouldn't get the one AFC. Yeah, it would be correct. Because you wouldn't get the Buffalo. Yeah.

I'm fine with that. Yeah, I just think that the NFL doesn't want their normal playoff thing. Like, there's a lot of content. Like the first weekend now, is six games, two on Saturday, three on Sunday, one on Monday night. I mean, it is a television bonanza. I mean, it is a ratings monster. And then the next weekend, you get, you know, the four games,

the divisional round games, and then the championship games, et cetera. You'd actually be, you know, you'd be spreading it out a little bit, but you'd have less content in each weekend, or at least the second weekend. Well, no, you'd have less content in both weekends. But anyway, we'll see what the NFL comes up. watching, as a fan watching, it would be great to do the NFC week one with Buffalo and Cincy and then the three AFC games because you could watch them all. Right.

Well, you're going to watch them all anyway. I mean, but there's never going to be any overlap to any of them. Well, there never is anyway in a playoff weekend. No, you're right, because there's two Saturday. Yeah, there's never any overlap. I'm fine. I'm fine with that where they do it. I'm going to.

I'm voting coin toss. Coin toss. I'd love to just see a televised coin toss. Oh, you know. They're going to drive. They're going to meet somewhere. I don't know. We're going to meet, like, somewhere in Pennsylvania,

like some little Pennsylvania town. Flip a coin. In between Ohio and New York, somewhere in Pennsylvania. Sure. Why not? You can get an hour. You could get an, like, you could easily get an hour of television out of that. Oh, my God.

I guess. The other thing, and I know you're not following it, I know I've talked about it already a couple of times this week, or definitely with Tommy. And the NFL is taking an absolute bashing from a lot of different outlets on this. So, Green Bay and Detroit, so Cooley, in the NFC, Washington, as you know, was eliminated.

I'll tell you what Ron knew about being eliminated, if you didn't know that already. You mean they, wait, I didn't know they could get eliminated. So you knew about it already. So the last three teams for the number seven seed are Seattle, Green Bay, and Detroit. Seattle plays the Rams this weekend. Green Bay plays Detroit. Green Bay controls its own destiny.

If they beat Detroit, they're in. It doesn't matter what Seattle does. If Seattle wins, they need Detroit to beat Green Bay and they're in. Detroit needs to win and have Seattle lose to the Rams. So actually, Detroit's the longest shot here of the three because they have to beat Green Bay and then they've got to hope that Seattle is an eight-point favorite over the Rams lose that game. Although the Rams have been more competitive here recently. But the most unfair part of this is that they're playing Green Bay in Detroit on Sunday night

and they're playing Seattle and the Rams at 425. So Seattle, if they win the game and stay alive, they eliminate. Detroit and Detroit has nothing to play for. And they need Detroit to beat Green Bay to get in. And the NFL specifically went to not scheduling week 18 when they put their schedule out in April or May with the purpose of making sure that there are no significant competitive disadvantages based on start times of the games and playoff races. Well, they wanted Aaron Rogers in prime time. They wanted the Packers and Aaron Rogers. And now, you know, there's a lot a conspiracy theory out there about how the NFL went away from what they said they were going to do,

that they were not going to create a competitive last weekend playoff advantage or disadvantage, and they screwed Seattle royally. And there's a lot of people now that just said the NFL said, screw it. We need Aaron Rogers and the Green Bay Packers in the postseason. And so if Seattle wins, Detroit's got nothing to play for, and Green Bay's got a better chance of winning that game. I think it's wrong. I can't believe they did that. I could get that's fascinating. If it were my team, I would be incensed over that. It didn't used to be that way.

It used to be however the NFL schedule was set up. It was set up. And, you know, if somebody was playing at one and it impacted a 4 o'clock game, so be it. But they went to this week 18. We're going to worry about times and dates and all of that after we can set it up. So nobody's at a significant, you know, competitive disadvantage. But anyway. All right.

It does seem awfully fishy. I would say that a Dan Campbell team will show up and play no matter what. I agree with that. Out of Detroit. I don't think that, I mean, even eliminated, I think Dan Campbell will get his guys to show up and play. I think he'll convince them that they were wronged as it is anyways and that they want to finish their season the right way. Yeah, but 25 minutes before kickoff, more likely than not, they're going to get the news. They'll probably be watching.

That they were eliminated before kickoff. So the NFL wants to make it fair. We should bet on the Rams because they're going to get every call in favor of Los Angeles. Well, I mean, they've played well recently. You know, they blew out the Broncos. They played the Packers tough. They beat the Raiders. They got blown out by who last week.

I mean, they played the Packers stuff. They looked like God crap against Packers. Oh, yeah, yeah. What was the game they won with Baker Mayfield's first start? Oh, it was the Raiders game on that Thursday night. The Raiders game, and then they got waxed by the Packers. I mean, the Packers didn't have much on offense in the first half, but then in the second half, Baron Rodgers took over a little bit,

and Baker Mayfield couldn't do anything against the Packers. All right. Before we get... But then, the enemy is Denver. They were amazing, so... Before we get to your film from the Browns game, and we talk a little bit about the Sam Howell decision, do you have anything else? It's been about a week and a half since you've been on the podcast, I think. I can't remember.

And, I mean, any stories? Hunting, bears, mountain lions? No. How was skiing yesterday? How was skiing yesterday? Well, we went to Disney World. I know. Oh, that's right.

That's right. I didn't do it last week. You had the fast pass, did you? Well, the first day, we've done this the last three times. This is actually, so Disney, Disney has a, You can buy a guide service. Okay. So there's a Disney guide that you pay hourly.

We use the same guy that we love the last two times we've went, and it's not cheap. I would have advised my wife not to do this, but she was adamant. And so they just take you, we went to three different parks, and we wrote all the rides that were like four hour long ways. They walk you into the exit, where people walk out of the ride, you walk in. So we got to do all the big rides and then the next two days we did the other couple. So you agree with my wife. Yes, indeed. Okay.

Yeah. How much do you think it is an hour? How much would you pay an hour to do that with your three kids? Almost anything with young kids. Almost anything. I mean, we did it. Yeah. What did it cost?

What would you guess? What would you guess? What's different at different times a year and we were in a high time? It's an hourly rate. You got and you have to do seven hours. Okay, so seven hours. Does it matter how many kids they're dealing with? You still buy parts.

You still buy, no, I think they do up to 14 or 15 or 60, something like that. We had my mother and father-in-law and our two kids, and really none of, we rode all the rides with them or most of them, but none of us cared to ride rides for that matter. $1,500 for the day. That's a good guess. You're not even close. Not even close. No. 3,500 bucks for the day, 500 bucks an hour.

You're about halfway there. Really? Okay, so it costs you seven grand for the day. Well, yeah. Okay. Let me ask you something. So if you did it with other families, if you brought your family and we had three families, then yeah, then it's worth it and we should have done that,

but it was just, that was the Christmas present. for the day. I still agree with your wife. I still agree with Maddie. I mean... You know what, though? So they have this avatar ride. I think it's fairly new.

It's a virtual reality ride, and you sit on this motorcycle thing, and it moves you up and down and turns you side to side and splashes some wind and water in your face. And it's freaking feels like you're flying on the back of this Dragon deal. It's unbelievable. Whatever. It was a four-hour wait in line to ride that ride. Yeah. four hours.

Yeah, think about... It took us 10 minutes to get on the ride. Which four hours of your time worth? I got you. No, but here's the thing. What's four hours of your time we're standing in a line with a five-year-old? Exactly.

When are we going to be there? Dad, when are we going to get to go on the ride? Why? What we're standing? Oh, my God. I would never... We had to do about an hour the next day for the safari thing in the animal kingdom. and my kids were beyond themselves.

Why are we in this line? Like, you spoiled a little breath. So, I mean, so at, you know, a thousand bucks an hour, and you can have up to 14 to 15 people, obviously, it would be totally worth it if you're doing it with, like, you know, two other families with kids. I mean, totally worth it. Yeah.

All right, let's get to Cooley's thoughts on the Browns game. We'll talk about Sam Howe, which we did on the podcast. yesterday and a lot more right after these words from a few of our sponsors. All right, Coolie's film breakdown on the Browns game, the game that eliminated Washington. It's brought to you by MyBooky. Go to MyBooky.orgie. Use my promo code Kevin D.C. And they'll match your first deposit, dollar for dollar, all the way up to a thousand bucks. Really, guys, this is one of the few places that's just giving you free money into your account. A lot of those places will give you $25.00.

back on a parlay bet or something like that. They're going to double your first deposit all the way up to $1,000. Every single football way you want to bet, in-game, pre-game, you know, obviously point spreads, totals, prop bets, they've got it all. Right now, Kooley, I just pulled up something on my bookie. Who do you think is favored to win the NFC championship right now? To win the NFC championship? To win the NFC championship.

Who's the favorite right now? 49ers? I was thinking that it might be the 49ers at this point. But no, the Eagles are still a favorite, but barely over the 49ers. The Eagles are plus 198 at my bookie. All right, you bet $100 on the Eagles to win the NFC championship. You win $198. The 49ers are plus 216.

That's followed by the Cowboys at plus 430. The bucks at plus 940. And then you get to the team that could be the two-seed, but more likely the three-seed. The Vikings are at plus 1175. Then it's the Packers, Giants, Lions, and Seahawks who are all still alive. So the Eagles are still slight favorites. And the Eagles are massive favorites, by the way, this weekend against the Giants who have nothing to play for. So even though the Cowboys do have a chance to win the division, and they'll be playing to win the game, at least for the first half, you know, they might look up at halftime and see the Eagles,

up 28 to nothing and then decide to play their backups in the second half. But the Eagles are 14-point favorites over the Giants. The Giants have nothing to play for. They are etched into the six-ead. Dallas right now, a seven-point favorite over Washington. It was five, five and a half when there was no announcement of the quarterback. It went to seven when it was announced that Sam Howell would be the quarterback. back. MyBooky.ag, please use my promo code, Kevin, DC, to get that benefit of a doubling of your first deposit. All right. What do you got? Tell me about Carson Wentz. Well, we, Carson Wentz.

Or tell me your thoughts on the game first. You and I, you and I disagree with this. This is my first thought. As I watched this again on film, it was my first thought when we talked initially after the game. and you disagree, so I'll bring it up again. I would have went down with Heineke. I would have 100% went down with Taylor Heineke. The fans, in my opinion, wanted it. The people in that locker room would have preferred that they went down with Heineke, and there's nothing throughout this year,

and nothing that went did early in this year to prove to me that he is demonstrably better than Heineke. Early throughout the game, there was nothing to show that he was prepared or had looked better than Heineke. There's no way to say that through the last six weeks of practice with Heineke taking all the one reps, that they knew that Wentz was making strides towards being better than Heineke. And so while I don't think Heineke is much better, like I want to be clear on that. I'm not going to see here and say, wow, He's a better player. I don't think there's enough of a difference that I would have made the change. Well, I felt this.

And I think it played out that way, and I think it's really frustrating. But that said, you know, you threw Wentz in because you didn't know you could be eliminated and you thought, maybe you'll give us the spark right here going into the playoffs. Yeah, let me just make one thing clear. When you and I talked the other night, it wasn't that I, I mean, I was fine with Wentz. I said multiple times last week, a six and one half dozen the other. I just don't think my expectations are low with Wentz. with Taylor Heineke in terms of what they're going to be get done offensively.

What I said to you on Sunday night or Monday night whenever we talked is I said to you, Wentz was horrendous, but I don't think they would have won the game with Taylor Heineke with the way the game played out because there was not an overall complementary effort in this game like there had been for nine straight weeks. The defense got absolutely torched in the second half, giving up 21 points on three straight possessions. And my point was, I just don't think Taylor Heineke would have won the game either. Do you think he would have won the game? I think he doesn't have a better chance to win the game because I think they're capable of

scoring more than 10 points if they put Heineke in the game. And I do, I think they're capable of scoring more than 24, probably not. But I think it's a different game. I think they're in the game longer. There's more opportunity for things to happen in that game into the fourth. quarter where you're just in oh shit mode. So, yeah. Well, you do know that they were up seven to three at halftime.

And the last game, Taylor started, they scored 12 points at home against the Giants. Yeah, I'm aware of that. And he played terrible against the Giants. And I'm also aware of that. I just feel like he would have given him Ben Chats to win the game. And I think Cleveland knew. I think Cleveland said if once is in throughout the early parts of the game, we're going to pressure him and he can't handle pressure.

All I can say to you is other than the 49ers game over the last six or seven weeks, the last two games, 49ers and Giants games, the last two haven't been good. The Giants before that wasn't great, but for some reason, they do play more complimentary football with Taylor Hineke in the game. I can't tell you why. Because the defense was ravaged by injuries in this game. That was the big difference. That's why the defense played poorly, is they didn't have curl, they didn't have St. Juice,

and they lost John Allen, and didn't have him. for nearly three quarters, and it got absolutely torn apart, and that the defense had led the way the entire season. That was my point more than anything else. I think it's a solid point. I can't answer whether or not I think they would have won that. No, I don't think they would have won the game. I think they ran out of gas in the second half.

I think the defense ran out of the gas. They had some of the misassignment stuff, too, and second half that hurt them on some of those touchdowns, mist tackles, missed assignment stuff that really they haven't had as much of since the early part of the season. Whatever. I still don't think that Wens gave him any better chance to win the game. And I'm looking at it and saying, you know, from where we were when Wents got hurt to where we are now because of Finneke, even though he's had two or three games that I don't like, and he's never been phenomenal,

he still might make par on number 18. And Wences is going to play himself out of the round. that is there's no doubt that Carson Wentz really I mean he choked I mean you could see it I mean after that drive at the end of the first half which actually in the moment I don't know how you felt in the moment I thought well he found his footing they just had the longest drive in the NFL all season long they're up seven to three it's a familiar spot I mean seven to three was like pretty much the score of it seemed like almost every single game they played over the last two months and, you know, Cleveland's not as good as the Giants. They're certainly not as good as the 49ers.

And by the way, Deshawn Watson looked horrible in the first half, even though Nick Chubb was running on them. But I actually thought at halftime they were going to win the game, even though he was horrendous early. I did not feel that way. The 7 to 3 was the best case scenario for them. Cleveland had opportunities early in the game with two picks. They end up making a field goal.

and then having a penalty and then going for it on fourth down and not getting it in. And then Washington goes on a 42-minute drive, which was unbelievable. I mean, that's the best case scenario. I'll go back to offensively, though. Even though I don't think Carson Wentz was, I think he was bad in this game. I think that there are some things that you have to do when you have a deficit at quarterback, and there's some things that they don't do and haven't done over the last few weeks. All right. Let's start. So get started. Okay, we're starting. That is potentially going more

up-tempo to run the football, and that is any semblance of an intermediate game, and it's accomplishing more yards in second-down situation. They have no five-step drop game. It is so limited in what they do with three-to-five-step drop. And what I'm amazed by is early in this game, there's way too much vertical downfield run-action past stuff, especially with a guy in Went who has not played in, what, eight weeks? You can go run action and throw a 10-yard hook wrap. You can't let him sit back in the pocket with two of the best pass rushers in the league, and they don't even have to blitz and they're going to get home.

And a guy that you know does not like to sit back in the pocket and just try to manipulate coverage. He just can't do it right now. So I think the compliment to that is not great. You know, it's funny. I actually look this up because I know I've talked to some people I feel this way. I think a lot of people I've talked to feel this way, that in a second in seven-plus situation, it's like 80% run.

And I get it because you want to get into a third and five, third and four, something manageable. It isn't that high. It's like around 43, 44%. I don't quite understand that. But I think you integrate some of the screens and stuff throughout the year. they've done in second down, which essentially counts as runs. If you put screens in and gimmick passes, it's got to be up to 70% screen or run on second 10.

Just don't drop back and just throw the ball. And maybe it's because they don't feel like they're comfortable protecting. I still at this point don't believe that they have any semblance of how they want to protect the quarterback or an appropriate way to sort their offensive line to pick certain things up. I'm not impressed with how they've done it. I know that the offensive line has been banged up throughout the year. I understand that there are deficiencies as far as the players, but there are some things where they just don't pass off twists. They don't pass off stunts.

They don't pass off blitzers. They don't pick up blitzers. There's no line slides. There's no line. There's a lot of things that they don't do. And maybe it's because they don't do that, that they don't want to drop back and throw five-step drop stuff. But I'll just go to this again and again and again and again. in games where Terry McClearn runs a slant, they're effective,

where you integrate Curtis Samuel on some of that underneath quick stuff that they did early in the season with some creativity. They can be effective. They didn't do that in this game. They want to lie. It was, and not to diss this, but it was like Joe Gibbs' offense with gun, where you're just going to heavy run, run, run, run, run. and go deep shot.

And then you're going to line up and max protect on third down and leave tight ends in at most chip and get out and try to run three-man combination. Like the second pick he threw? Yeah. That's a three-man three-goes. You don't ever see that. A three-man-three-go combination

with a seven-man protection? Wow. Wow. So why? And not even devil moves up. So why do you? And maybe they're, and it was into a cover two,

and maybe they're converting outside routes to cover two. But three-man combinations are really tough. I mean, if you're going to run three-man show, you better really lock it up as far as protection goes. And they don't. They can't. Even with seven,

they don't lock it up. Right. They still get pressured. You said that in the giant kid. If you still get pressured, then you better find another way. So, again, like,

the last six or seven games, I have not been impressed in any way with Scott Turner at all. I'm not impressed with the quarterbacks, and maybe that's part of it. That's, I think, the argument you would make is, what are you going to do with, you know, seven different starting quarterbacks in four years? But they can't, because your quarterback isn't good, doesn't necessarily mean you can't protect them or figure out a way to protect them or get the ball out of its hands or change the location or do. There's some things that they are not attempting to do, and I'm not impressed with. Got it.

So, on to Carson Wentz. He'd like him to get started early, and again, you'd like some easy throws. And I think the first throw of the game is the blocked up swing screen to Williams, and he dirts it. Yeah. That's my new favorite. That's my new favorite saying, we were watching a game with my father-in-law. I always, on a bootleg where if you get pressure in your face, you can throw a bounce pass.

That was always the way it's talked about. Yeah. We were watching the game. I think Vilmo was calling the game. Yeah, they just call that a dirtball. They say, just dirt it. So they don't say dirt it. I've never heard that in 20 years.

But this wasn't even intentional. The first throw he makes, you're like, wow. He makes another one of those screen throws to Robinson. That is not even close. He doesn't get it out of his hand. It came out like sideways out of his hand. How does it happen? Because he was tight.

I mean. He should have been that tight. That was into the game. I know, but I mean, you know, one of the things, and if you were just watching the All-22, the Heinekees chant started, after that first pick on the opening drive, every time he took the field,

the 30,000 people that were there were chanting Heineke, Heineke. And I think he got... They were loud, though. They were loud. I think he got really tight. Now, that's why I was surprised that they ended up having that drive

at the end of the first half, that he was able to convert those throws on, I mean, they made five third down plays. Because the second drive, there's a throw to Robinson, that he just dirt. I don't know if you've ever heard that expression. He just dirted it. Dirt it.

Dirt it. It was terrible. It was unbelievable. I mean, isn't that nerds? Yeah. Yeah? I guess. And it did with 16 to 28 for 143 yards, at least 10 of these throw.

I mean, maybe had five impactful throws in the game. Most of these were underneath check-down stuff, which I still don't even like the timing and rhythm that he's getting to some of it. But the good throws from Wentz. On the second drive, he throws what really looks like hot to Bates. It's actually not hot. Bates looks hot, but they're not bringing enough pressure to... to be hot,

hot essentially means you can't block what you have off the side. It's a three-man brush to a three-man side. They could have protected it, but they convert and he gets at the base. I mean, good play there. The 22 or whatever play drive, after a sec, he does

make a hell of a throw on a deep out to the right side. To Dodson. To Dotson, which is an absolute awesome throw. I mean, he has a couple other decent throws. to Logan Thomas on that drive.

And then he ends up going over the pile on fourth and one, which is great for them to score. At that moment, literally said, so it's going to take them 18 plays every single time to score. Well, I mean, this was the small margin for error offense we've seen all year. It's the small margin. Yeah, a couple other throws, but, you know, I don't know what to tell you, man.

I mean, go through the negatives. You know, the first pick, the ball can't be thrown. It's a bad route by Terry McLaurin. Takes an inside release on an outbreaking route against Ward. Really, to me, he gets held at the top of the route. I thought so tall. It's pass interference or holding it. But that ball shouldn't come out.

I mean, and if it does come out, and you say you're the quarterback and you see, man, he's getting grabbed and let's exaggerate or emphasize that he's getting grabbed and throw it. Just throw it over his head. We're don't get it. He's clearly covered. You're not putting, you're not needling that throw in there. There's no window.

Ward's in front of him. He held him, he wrapped him, he's in front of him. There's no dime ball to be dropped into there. It's a no throw. No. The ball shouldn't be thrown. But it was, it was passenger because the ball was out. It was PI.

You know. There was a small grab of Terry coming out of the break. It was around his waist. It doesn't have to be much when you hook the hip Okay No, I wrote it down as a note that I thought that there could have been a P.I. on the call But he also stared it down and he threw late

and he threw it terribly. Yeah, he did, but it's man coverage. And so whether or not he stared at down, like all he's got to do is not have the middle safety get into that. Ward's got to play Terry in man coverage which he does. Yeah. So him staring that dad, he knows it's man coverage

and he's fine if he's looking at it. at that. He's not moving coverage to get that throw. Yep. Just as we're going through, progressing through this, God, the second drive, they go for a fourth and one with a toss. Oh, my God. And it's not, I actually like toss on fourth and one, but I like toss without, I like toss getting to the ball, making it look

like sneak, or make it look like dive, and boom, boom, quick count it. Like, let's not let them line up and play it. When people are affected, when teams have been effective, and I've watched throughout this year, a lot of teams use that toss. And in college, a lot of that toss will be like gun and just a quick toss to the right

on a gun. I know exactly what you're talking about. On a quick down. That toss extends, extends your offense, gets them to the edge, and lets them make a lunch forward. They line up and with Terry McClearn outside to the point in

20, who's 20 for Cleveland. He's just inside of Terry. Terry's got a block down on 20. It's a crack block or a down block on 20. But their linebacker 54 scrapes over the top. They actually have a tackle point and a white sweep guy to block

two outside. They have the numbers to block 54, but Terry pulls off 20 to go block 54. And that's just you can't do that. He panics. He just doesn't finish the assignment of blocking 20 and now 24 yards in the backfield. because even for toss, it was like a delayed toss.

If you want to go for it on fourth and one, like line of scrimmage, boom, here, bop, toss, go. Like, they set it up and I also don't like fly motioning into toss. Like you're showing the motion into where you're going on a quick... I don't love it. I don't love it at all. Well, you haven't mentioned the most important part of that play. Where's Brian Robinson, Jr.? I don't know.

Last week, fourth and goal with the one against the 49ers. They wanted more speed. They wanted to run toss. They've seen everybody else run it. They're in copycat mode, and they came up with their version of toss, and they said we want speed to the edge, and we'll get it elsewhere. I hated the play call. I hated all of it.

I don't hate toss, though, on fourth and one. I just hated the way they said it that. The way you described it, I've seen it a lot this year, and it is. It's like, okay, we're going forward and fourth down. We're getting to the line of scrimmage, and then they get to it, and then it's a total quick count, and there is a dive look, and then it's a quick pitch out to the edge, and the guy, and it's a back with speed, and he gets out there, and he's able to get the yard or two,

and sometimes it turns into a big play. But they've got it all bunched up. It's not a quick count. It's a slow developing play. Like you said, Bates is coming in motion, and, you know, Terry misses a block that allows the play to get blown up. I guess. But I don't know.

I didn't have a problem with them going for it. You know, it's fourth and one at the, you know, a 3-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-the-other-the- other team's 30-yard line, 39-yard line. I had no problem with them going for it. No, no, no. I don't mind the go-for-it. And I don't mind the toss.

I just don't like the way they said that. Right. I still think they have a chance of Tergets the clock. Even at that, we'd say this all day, and they could sit here and listen to it all day and go, yeah, but if 17 does what we coach 17 does, to do and just stay on 20, then we got a shot. I don't know. Cleveland was rolling to it, though.

I don't know if they're getting it. They were. The second pick, Wentz throws, is third and long. That's the seven-man protection. They go three verticals with the seven-man protection. He gets Tampa two. and down the middle of the field, if you got split safety with the receiver on the Tampa Mike 54

isn't a bad idea. It isn't a bad option. It's a ball you can throw. Put air under it and let your receiver go get it and find a way to track it. It was it Dodson, right? Was it to the Dodson? It was to the two...

It was the slot receiver. It was third and seven. Was it Dodson or Diami? round. It was Samuel. It was Samuel. It was Samuel. It was Samuel. It was Samuel. It's not an excellent effort for the ball, but the problem is, is the receiver, they're in a cover two. They're jamming on the outside. The outside receiver to the left doesn't get off the jam. So the safety over the top of the two to the offensive left never really has to midpoint the two. He never really has to wipe. Because the outside receiver doesn't get any vertical presence. He gets jammed, and I think that's

Terry. Whatever, it's Terry or Dodson, but the outside receiver is not. It's not. It's not. It's no vertical presence. So if you're going to throw that ball, really, that ball's got to be to the other hash. I mean, it's got to be further away from that near-side safety. It's not a great throw. And when you look and see, man, there is literally no vertical threat. It's really almost what he should do is hold eyes on that middle vertical to move the safety to the middle vertical, and then honeyhole over the corner to the outside receiver who's only about 12 yards up the field when he throws.

at 35 yards up the field. So the answer to that, like, the throw is into coverage. The safety, he never moved the safety. So I don't like that throw. Wasn't just, wasn't Williams just available on the checkdown for probably a catch and a really good chance at a pickup of a first down on that play? It would have been late. When I looked at it, when I looked at it, I can bring it up again, but when I looked at it,

I don't know, you can tell me. I'm looking at my notes, and I wrote, I don't know. I wrote Williams is wide open on the checkdown and he may get the first down. I'm trying to pull up the play right now. But whatever. Continue. Yeah, here's the play. Here's the play right here. If you want to look at the play and you're on the all 22 on the NFL, it's 1739.

Yeah, I got it. I think there's a chance for the checkdown on the first down. Yeah, it's going to be tough. But 21 falls off enough. I just think there's a chance to throw the ball up the left sideline with the safety on the numbers. I mean, it's a terrible job by Samuel in the middle of field reacting to the ball. And it's because I know he doesn't expect the ball to be thrown. The last pick is literally a yellow ball in the fourth quarter.

And they're not out of the game, so it's ridiculous, but he's throwing a poster deep over the top to top. And the safety's 10 yards over the top of him when he lets that ball go. There's no way that ball can be let go. There's no real chance for the receiver. I mean, the best case is he's going to break it up. But it's a yellow ball. Isn't Cam Sims and man coverage on a corner route, the guy to go to here?

Yes. What's he doing? I just said, I just told you what he's doing. The yellow ball. You only live once. It's a Rex Grossman. I mean, you're down 14 with three minutes to go and you want to get something quick, but to me, the quick one was the Sims.

It's a better play to throw the Sims there. Never looks at them. Never looks off of the read. Yeah. And then I'm going to get to, you know, a couple more and then final. But the other play that I really hated is a third and five. They're down 17 to 7. They end up kicking a philgo to make it 17 to 10.

It's at the 24-yard line. It's the third and five. It's fourth and third and five. So you set up a bunch formation to the offensive right, where you have Samuel, Dotson, and Logan Thomas. Away from that, you have Terry McClorn to the left. It's your crossers concept. And essentially, on the right side of your bunch, you have three guys going across the field. It's man coverage.

You can see it's man coverage because the linebacker, 54, is bossed over to play Williams. He has moved over over the top of Williams. That's the definitive manchel. The three receivers crossing the field essentially, is a phenomenal pick concept for Terry coming shallow across in front of the quarterback's face. The play is essentially designed to go to Terry McLaren. Yeah, I can see it. It's weird, in my opinion, that they release Williams into the flat.

I don't like to call on the flat. A lot of times, if you're hoping you get in man coverage, you run them towards the flat and then rail them up the numbers. So it makes it tough on that linebacker who's got to run flat to cover out to the flat, which he does a great job of. but then the running back turns up. So if you get manned coverage, you want to throw that deep ball up the numbers. The thing is, when you see 54 and he was complimented by whoever was calling the game,

like, wow, look, it and sort through all this traffic, he's in straight man coverage, and once he sees two receivers really since that, he knows that back going to the flat, it is a good job by 54. But as a quarterback, when you see him bubble over the top of those, instead of go underneath the crossers, the flat's dead. it's an easy read. Like, it is a alert ball. Like, I'm going to alert the flat to the running back based on the reaction of 54.

If 54 goes under or pauses, we can throw that flat and have a chance to get it. If 54 immediately bubbles, we're off of it. It should have been off of it, you know, half a second. To Terry. Eyes back to Terry, who, by the way, is fucking wide open in the middle of the field. And it's going to get 20. Wide open. And it's going to be 17, 14.

instead of 1710. Yeah. Yeah. And then he misses another throw later. I mean, he misses another throw of the Dotson, stepping up in the pocket. He has a wide open look

to throw Dotson about 20 yards down. So he missed a couple throws like that. Ultimately, this is what I would say about Carson Mance at this point. He cannot handle pressure. He panics in the pocket to any form or semblance of pressure. He does not keep eyes down the field.

He's not comfortable when he sees any semblance of blitz. whether or not it's because they can or can't pick it up or he's worried about the offensive line doesn't matter because he gets his eyes off any downfield throws or any second reads and two if his first read isn't there right now he's in he's in panic mode he is a one read throw it to one read guy if you can't protect wins he can't play and you're concerned over the and this is i'm going to go back to this one more time seriously if you can't protect wins he cannot play for you he needs protect

right now. Your concern with the Giants, two games in a row, the 49ers, and the big parts of this game, was number one, in my opinion, how are we going to protect? They maxed it up so many times over the last month. Why is Wentz in the game? You tell me. Well, I mean, it was first. It was frustrated.

We didn't know we could be eliminated, and maybe he was going to be the spark. I don't think it was because, I think they knew how important it was to win this game and the final game to make the postseason. I think that they were ready to pull the plug on Heineke a couple of weeks ago before the fourth and fourth row to Curtis Samuel that ended up, you know, tying the Giants. And they wanted the buy week and they wanted him to start against the Giants, went to start against the Giants. I think they were just, I know, I think they just got frustrated. with the lack of offense and scoring points. And they thought, but they, yeah, and they scored 10 on Sunday. What, what, but there wasn't dynamically better when Wentz was in there.

No, it was worse. And it was not better early. So the, the, the men, big, a big mistake really may have been that they ever put pressure on Heineke with Wentz behind him. I think at some point after five wins you call them both into the office and say we will not make a change

sorry Carson Heineke's our guy go play but they put pressure on Heineke in that way and went to put pressure on Heineke in that way and that's a guess that's my educated guess I would have just stayed with Heineke he got you where you are

paring 18 three out of four times whatever. I mean, it came down to the last, came down to the last putt a lot of time, but he got it done a lot of those times. I'd have stayed with him. Now, in saying that, would I try to make a change next year? Yes, absolutely. Do I think that there are a team that's going to win games in the playoffs with any quarterback? No, I don't. But we've got a chance. I meant it. Was he going to win the game with Hanuky, the ultimate decision? I don't know.

But losing the game without him in my guess is worse. You know, in some ways, they should have made the change for the giant game, seeing Wentz not be able to do it against the Giants, and then had Heineke back for the 49ers and the Browns, and then, you know, hopefully the performance would have been better against the Browns. But again, my contention is not that Wentz was better than Heineke or was even equal to Heineke in the game that he played on Sunday. I was okay with it going into the game because I just wasn't impressed with anything they were doing offensively with Heineke and thought it can't get worse.

It was not as good. But the thing that had led this team and had given them a chance at the end of the game so that he could make par on 18 and have it matter was a defense that was dominant for a long stretch of the season and it wasn't on Sunday at all. It wasn't the first half. Well, they weren't on the field. They weren't on the field in the first half after the 242 play drive. And the truth is, the truth is, what's his face? Chubb, he had five carries for 68 yards in the first half.

Watson was terrible in the first half, but they ran right through them, and then they just didn't have the ball. And they missed a field. They took three points off the board. No, it was probably an hour and a half real time that they'd been on the field, other than a knee. Other than the knee, it was every bit of an hour between what turned out to be really their one unproductive drive in the first half, because they moved the football on the other drives. But, yeah.

Well, clearly they had enough time to evaluate anything they wanted to do to change, because they made those changes. They made the changes. So tell me about what you saw defensively. First of all, what was your grade? I think everybody wants a grade on once. Oh, I actually, this is one other thing that I came up with on my vacation. Something I wished I would have done while I was doing this film breakdown and working with you and Dave and calling the games.

I wish I would have changed it to a ribbon system. So a blue ribbon The trophies You get a trophy You're amazing That's like an A plus plus Then you got blue ribbon Right

And then you're red ribbon And gold ribbon And the blitz is like Down to the brown ribbon He took it the ribbon Because he played Like it's a ribbon He played

We're giving them a brown ribbon Come on over here We've got some We've got some goldfish You can still have Some of the goldfish It wasn't your best game I think it's

I think it's easily understandable. We have the blue ribbon, the red ribbon, the yellow ribbon, the purple ribbon, which no one really wants, and then the brown ribbon. He got a brown ribbon. He went home with a ribbon. Quote that. His parents can say, you still got a ribbon. Put it around your neck. You're out there playing. We're proud that you're out there playing, you know. You said early you wanted to quit, but we said you chose to do this this year. You can't quit. You got to stick with it. You got to stick it out. You made the commitment at the beginning of the year. We know you hate it, and it's not your best sport, but you know what? You're going to finish it, and at the end,

we're going to be so proud that you stuck it out and finished it. Yes, you do have to go practice today. You said you were going to do this thing. Yeah. By the way, I'm with the ribbon award system. Are you that kind of father? I was that kind of father. Once you commit to it, you're going to finish it. Yeah. I am that kind of father. I mean, when it's over, you don't have to do it next year, or you don't have to do it. You know, you don't have to do it again. Yeah. That's it.

I'm like the kind of father that goes, yeah, but let's give it one more year. You might like it. You might like it this year. Defense. Defense, defense, defense, defense. The good stops early in the game in turnover situations. to hold them to fill goal attempts and then a fourth and short.

The one thing I love, who is the color guy? Do you remember? Yeah, it was Schlareth, wasn't it? I don't know, but maybe. One of my favorite moments early in the game, I'm watching that game, and I remember this watching the film.

They're, what, fourth and three, and they go gun, and if it's Sloreth, goes, well, if you go gunning, and you're just telling them that you're not going to run the ball. there we go quarterback draw and in those moments I did this what I called games I would have immediately said

well yeah I was wrong there I didn't really think quarterback draw but they did and they ran the ball and so guns did show that they could run the ball it was good stop it was great by both linebackers converging on it was great by the defensive line to come up a big stop and a fourth down stop for them I thought Duran made a good play on that

but why did they go for it I mean it was fourth and goal at the three this was going to be, you know, going in. I don't know. This was going to be a tight game. I know a lot of people thought that this was a should win game. There was a reason they were only a one and a half point favorite.

I thought three would have been important for them in that spot. But maybe they just thought, look, fourth and goal from the three, if we miss, Carson Wentz is coming back out onto the field. Maybe that was it. Spanski sitting there on the side of the going, it's going to tip from the three, it's going to take them at least like 20,

two 23 plays to score, they're probably going to make a mistake along that path. He did throw an interception. That was the second interception to delve it on the third, you know, third and six bomb. I know. So they get to the second half, you know, the first drive of the second half for Cleveland, Deshawn Watson, and Jamie Davis misses the tackle. In a situation to really essentially force them off the field or maybe they're going to go. for it right there on midfield. Right.

But that was costly. Not as costly as Fuller. No, the next play, and Joku drops one in it, it's like if things are going to go your way, that ball popped up one inch higher and you pick it. Right. But he dropped it. And then you get the third and sixth,

the Amari Cooper play on Fuller. So first of all, the Cooper Fuller play is set up really well by DeFansky or whoever drew it up. So Cooper ends up becoming the widest receiver, but initially he's not. And so the widest receiver is a tight-split guy, and Cooper is. He's three, four yards inside the numbers. But they motion the outside receiver outside of Cooper down inside of him.

Now, defensively, you should have made the adjustment to know that Cooper is your widest guy. But that guy from tight-splits is running an outbreaking route. If he doesn't run immediately cross her, he is running an outbreaking route. the play should have been dead on arrival. I mean, it should have been a play that Fuller could have jumped. But he doesn't play the out route very well, and then obviously doesn't use the sideline and doesn't make the tackle. And at the same time, everybody else, like Jeremy Reeves and Derek Forrest both think

that the tackle is going to be made, they essentially stop on the play. They would have been there to make a tackle around the 10-yard line, had they not just stopped in the middle of the field. No one rallies to the ball. and in a tight game, that's a huge spark for Cleveland. I mean, I don't even think Cooper touched the ball. All of a sudden, big-time play. Yeah, but they got it, you know, in that drive to start out to that point by, you know,

all the sudden Watson making some plays, including the play, you say, Jamon Davis missed the tackle, but Watson's a pretty good read option quarterback and a pretty big strong dude. He's a very good read option. Yeah. Yes, no doubt. But Jamie Davis is also a big strong dude and should be able to tackle the shot a lot of them. But they would have gone for it, like you said. It would have been fourth and one at midfield or whatever.

I think it was midfield. They probably would have gone for it, but still, there's an opportunity on fourth down to get the ball back at midfield. And still a seven to three game. And by the way, the offense had the ball to start the second half and went three and out with a seven to three lead. The next drive. immediately they put Cooper in the slot you really have a man situation where Forrest is man to man on Cooper

which is not a great matchup he runs an inside corner route and it's a big play right there soon thereafter they throw they have three to the left and Joku's the middle of the three he runs an inside go route

and Forrest is in a cover two situation and should never have allowed in Joku to be able to catch the ball down the field and they're there all the way down the field. They get inside the 10, what, to the 10, to the 12, whatever, and there's missed assignments everywhere, and People's Jones is uncovered in the middle of the field, on the crossing around with touchdown.

He's uncovered. There is nobody around him. What about the throat of Cooper on that drive where he was wide open? We started with that. He's his man coverage. The forest gets turned around on the corner of off. Oh, okay. I'm sorry.

I thought you're talking about a different place. Force is not, no. No, it's a huge play to Cooper. And then you get the next drive. Watson starts it out with essentially a quarterback counter for 20 up the middle. Big play, really, on this drive, too. There's a second nine that Watson ends up avoiding a sack from Jerome Payne. Jerome Payton had a deader right. And it would have been a third and 16.

And I just, I don't think Cleveland's converting third and 16. But he gets back to the line of scrimmage to get to a third and nine, and then he runs up the middle to get to a fourth and, what, one. And they bring in Jacoby Brissette and quarterback sneaker for the first down. Yeah, right. I forgot about that. They did use Brissette. You know, another thing I forgot about is that Jonathan Williams started the game at running back.

Brian Robinson. I know. Right. They had something they wanted him to do. Yeah. Run a swing screen and get it dirted. Which happened, yes. And then you get a man-covered situation.

sorry, a missed assignment. They run a cover three with a blitz against a run-action play. They've already had some confusion. They haven't been great in the back end. I don't know why they're bringing nickel pressure, and Cooper runs a deep crossing route, and there is nobody in the field to cut it. You know, out to the far right, they run a go route.

Cooper comes from the other side. Forrest is in the middle of the field covering essentially nobody. Probably you want him to cut that. Mayo just omits it as it crosses his face and Jamon Davis doesn't get any depth. And Cooper is like 10 yards from anybody

when he catches that ball. I mean, it's horseshit coverage. And that's weird because they haven't had that throughout the year. But Cam Curl has been a big part of it. And St. Juice too. Neither one of them was out there. And the amazing thing is Montessweb,

up hitting Watson as he lets that ball go. It's a great job by Watson to get the ball out. But gosh, if you have anyone drop anywhere near that to make him think about it for a split second longer, then sweats get in a sack. But nobody covered. And Bing, Bang, Boom, you got three touchdowns in a row. Ultimately, the ultimate evaluation is missed assignments in the back end, a ton of miss tackles on Chubb.

and way too many extra yards with Watson. And that is one thing that Watson's going to do. He's done it his entire career. But the other two, you can't miss a ton of tackles on chub. And he just cannot have the missed assignments in the back end against a quarterback who's right now not. It's hard to say struggling, but he is not in rhythm. You can't give him easy throws. He got into rhythm in the second half and looked like Deshawn Watson again for the first time.

I know. He did. but we're talking about speed out where Cooper makes a big play, a corner route man to man with Cooper against Derek Forrest, which is a nightmare matchup, a crossing route to People's Jones where nobody covers him and another crossing route to Cooper with nobody covering. Yeah, he's in rhythm, but these are not complex throws and play. Right.

So the missed assignments and mistackles that set up situations to get them into these run-action situations where you're panicked as an underneath coverage. This is bad defense. Bad defense. Like all, here are the things that would kill us. Okay, let's do all of those we will lose. We will give up three scores

in a row. But they did. And Cooley, and that's where they're eliminated. The truth is too, and I, this is and I, you know, a lot of people have disagreed with me, which is fine. I'm not changing my tune on this. I mean, they had

not given up what they gave up on those three drives. I mean, they hadn't given up five carries for 68 yards and a half to anybody this year. I mean, they held, you know, some of the best rushers in the league down for most of the year. You know, even in that first half, Cleveland did move the ball a little bit with Chubb. I mean, when you're, when you're averaging, you know, basically 12 and a half yards per carry on five carries, you just, you look at it and you're like, well, the other team had a 37 play drive that took 16 minutes. I mean, it was 21 play. You for 11 and a half minutes, but that's why Chubb didn't get as many opportunities. Cleveland scored in their first three drives and then basically just decided to run the clock

out with their final two. If the game had been competitive, they would have potentially done the same thing on their final two drives. They were three for three on the three drives that mattered. I totally agree. I don't see any reason why they wouldn't have done exactly the same thing. What else? It's a year. Good night. Let's talk about Sam Hal when we come back. right after these words from a few of our sponsors. So there was news from Ashburn a little while ago.

Antonio Gibson is not going to play. He's to the injured reserve. Did not play on Sunday against the Browns. That's why you saw more Jonathan Williams and Jared Patterson was up. Jared Patterson signed once again to the 53, so he will play. Gibson ended up having that, you know, sprained knee foot situation from the 49ers game. and that ends his year. I like Gibson a lot.

I hope, you know, him and Robinson, to me, are a really good combination. Anyway, so you're updated on what happened yesterday with the quarterback decision. Ultimately, they decided on Sam Howl. You did a film breakdown of Sam Howell. They picked him in the fifth round. First of all, you do agree that they've made the right decision no matter how they got to it to start Sam Howell in this season finale. All right?

100%. Okay. This is a great opportunity for them to see how Sam handles a week of install and how he handles what is for him a ton of pressure and really essentially what he is in a one-week scenario in the NFL. This is a great opportunity for Hal. It's a great opportunity for them. I don't think he's into this game with unrealistic expectations.

that he's going to be amazing. They'll be simplified as an offense. But you see how he handles it in some of the situations. It's a great choice. How many, how simplified do you think it'll be? Like, I'm trying to think, like, when, oh boy, I'm just trying to think for your career. I actually shouldn't say that. I think the offense will look no different because I think the offense has been incredibly simple. Right, right, right. There's a back half of the season. I think that they're going to try to run the ball. Honestly, I think that they should go into a drop-out situation and see how Hal operates. It might get him killed in Dallas.

Yeah. You know, you just reminded me of something. I want to come back to Hal in a moment. I did watch, so I ended up watching the All-22 in a lot of the Wentz throws specifically. I actually thought after watching it that I was dead. What? What?

That I, me, Like I advocated last week, just stick with the formula that's been working, run the football, try to stay in good down the distance, try to keep the game with some good defense, good special teams, you know, probably not a lot of points again, but keep it a coin flip game and try to win the game at the end. But after watching him, some of the empty set stuff where he was forced to get it out quickly is actually the stuff that I thought he looked most comfortable in. And I'm wondering if it even occurred to you that maybe what they should have done. done, even though it probably didn't increase their chances of winning the game, because

they had a formula that was keeping them in all of these coin flip games, that for Wence, if they were going to go in that direction, they should have just gone empty a lot and let them get it out quickly on quick throws. Like, you know, some of the throws you threw to Logan Thomas. The offensive conversation, the initial conversation, I think we started. with is there's got to be more of a three-and-five-step passing game. Right. The crazy thing with Wentz that makes it tough,

and then thinking back to the early part of the season is his footwork was so bad early, that in some of the five-step stuff and gun, he was taking seven, eight-step, he was a 12-yard beat. So, like, it is, Wentz, and that's something he could have worked on. It's just, you know, rock and throw, one-two-and-throw, keeping his sets and his footwork better. That's something that he could have improved on, he was not playing.

All right. So Sam Howe, what to expect from him on Sunday? Like they're not going to have... Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. I would expect nothing from Sam Hal. I would hope for a decent performance. But, I mean, even if Sam Hal is... Like, Sam Howe's going to have to be 25 of 25 for 350 yards to be in consideration

to be the starting quarterback group, the commanders next year. I forget what your film breakdown of him was. Do you remember? I forget what it was. I don't even close to remember. Okay. I haven't written down somewhere. I probably have to pull it up another day.

Okay. We'll do that in the off-season, and you'll have an actual game to review as well. So Logan Paulson said before Howl was named starting quarterback, and Logan's been, you know, working for the team, doing a lot with the team and Ron and Julie and the whole crew out, you know, basically took your job out of Nashburn. Yeah, and good for Logan.

Yeah, and he made this statement the other day that Sam Howe isn't ready to start. From what he's been hearing, Sam Howe's nowhere near ready to start, and that they're probably not going to play him in the game. And then it turned out that that was kind of Ron's first inclination, but then he got talked out of it. And one of the people that potentially talked him out of it was Taylor Heineke, who apparently, according to Jeremy Fowler said, you know, just let him play the game.

Which, by the way, is, as I said yesterday on the podcast, pretty shrewd moved by Taylor. He's got enough out there. He's an unrestricted free agent. Why go out there and get your brains beat in potentially by the Cowboys as he did twice last year? Or even worse, get hurt. But that, you know, Sunday should be about the future. Like we should be looking, we know what we have in Heineke, we know what we have in Wence, Wentz won't be here.

Heineke's a backup quarterback. Maybe they'll sign them, maybe they won't. Who knows? And let's see if Sam Howl's got anything. But I was thinking about something that I don't think I've mentioned on the podcast this week because I had this thought yesterday, I think, after the show. Maybe it was during the show. I forget.

Remember during the stretch when Wence was out? and Sam Hal was the backup quarterback. So, you know, if he wasn't ready, wasn't anywhere near ready, and they were contemplating, not starting him in a game that is totally meaningless and was an opportunity for the quarterback you picked in the fifth round. We said after a lot of those Taylor games,

why isn't he running more? Why isn't he scrambling more? Why isn't he keeping it more on some of these read option looks. Why aren't there more designed runs for him? Because he ran a lot less this year than he did last year. And my thought was, well, maybe they were really concerned about if they had to go to Sam Howl and he got injured. At some point, I don't think it was you. At some point, it may, I forget who it was, did say they don't want him to get injured. They don't have anybody that can back them up and come in right now.

And I think they took away a lot of what, you know, Taylor did well. I mean, I'm looking at, I want to see the difference ultimately because he, you know, played, what did he start this year? He ended up starting nine games this year, and he had two hundred and, he had 96 rushing yards in nine games this year. Last year in 16 games, 313 rushing yards. I mean, they were in a do-or-die situation, essentially from the day Heineke came in through this game where he didn't play. So I can't imagine them saying, don't go make plays.

Every game was important. Everything was critical. If it was anything, it was Heineke saying, if I get hurt, there's no chance I'm a starting quarterback anywhere next year. Yeah, but what makes him even viable as a backup is his. his off-schedual extending. He ended up taking a lot of sacks towards the end of the year. He can do that. I think anyone that's watched him over a two-year spend.

But he didn't do that as much this year. Capable is different than what he did. If I was signing Hinekew as a backup, I would feel comfortable that he could move around. Well, I would, I'm wondering if it wasn't his call. I'm wondering if Ron and Scott said, we don't have a backup right now. You can't get hurt. Maybe. And plus, we have a lot more in the way of playmakers than we did last year,

and we're going to run the ball. We're going to rely on that. Just get it to the playmakers when we asked you to throw the football. Maybe. I don't like that, but maybe. Yeah, because there were a lot of times we came in here and we said he should have run on that play. Remember the sack fumble in New York. The big one at the start of the third quarter, he had an opportunity to get out and run, and he didn't.

Oh, I know. He had a lot of opportunities to run. And they had a lot of opportunities compliment with some zone read stuff, and they rarely did that. But that's not who they are. I mean, that's not really been who they are. They don't RPO. They're almost, RPO is almost non-existent. They don't do a lot of zone read.

That's not been who they are. I mean, that's not Scott Turner. Yeah, but last year he had a lot of big-time scramble games, where he was looking to scramble, looking to make plays with his lay. I mean, he almost had 100 yards in the game against Green Bay last year. Yeah, it might have been the cases they got themselves into the six, seven spot, that they said, hey, you got to survive this. The funny thing is he kept it on a couple of read options once Carson Wentz was back as the backup,

which would kind of support my... I mean, if they said it early, then he knew that if he got hurt, he was done, which supports my theory. Yeah, I mean, his best rushing game of the season, was the Sunday night game against the Giants, which was the first game that Carson Wentz was the backup officially. Right.

And so at that point, maybe, you know, they should have been concerned about their backup quarterback being Wentz, but they were less concerned about Wentz than they were Sam Hal. Anyway, that was just something I was thinking about. I didn't prepare you for this. So if you're not prepared for it, that's fine.

And we can do it. afterwards, but I wanted you to know if you didn't know this already, that Sonny Jorgensen's jersey is being retired on Sunday. It's a big deal. Unfortunately, it's, you know, and I talked about this when they announced that it was going to be the final game of the year. I said, what are you guys doing? Final game of the year is the Cowboys. It's probably going to be a meaningless game. It's going to be filled with Cowboy fans, and it might be 10 degrees. Why would you wait until the final game of the year? Well, it's not going to be 10 degrees, but it's a lot. apparently going to be raining and or raining and sleeting and in the 30s.

And Washington has nothing to play for, and the Cowboys will obviously, whatever fans will be in the stadium will be Cowboy fans. But anyway, you worked with Sunny, and I had a chance to work with Sunny as well for a long period of time, but you were in the booth with them. And I just wanted you, you know, if you had any thoughts about your time, you know, working with really one of the franchise's all-time legends. It was amazing for me to get to know Sunny. As a player, he was always amazing. Him and Sam were always so great to me. I would, every road game, a lot of home games when we leave from the hotel,

I'd sit with those two on the bus. Have a chance to talk to those guys about their career and their life. Gosh, I loved Sonny. And to get to go on all the trips, as I called the games, I was so appreciative to have had him as a part of my life. He was great with my children. He was great with my wife. He was unbelievable as a player, as a broadcaster.

And without saying anything about who else deserves jerseys retired, for everything that Sonny did, and as a part of Washington, he deserved his jersey retired long ago. It's somewhat unfortunate, in my opinion, that it's week 17 in a non-impactful game where, like you said, there will be more Cowboys fans. But the fact of the matter is, they are retiring his jersey, and it will be forever that his jersey is retired. It's something that he gets to be a part of all he's still alive, his family gets to be a part of, and I'm so proud of what he did. I've always been amazed by

sending. I mean, well said. I remember many times, you know, because Sonny and Sam and Larry, they were very, very generous in that when I stayed for the games after doing the pregame shows all those years, I didn't always stay for the game, but if I did stay for the game, they were totally fine with me, you know, hanging out in the booth with them and watching the game from there, which was a much better position than was the actual media area. And then when you came into the booth, you and I, you know, I would stand right behind you. And I always felt in watching you and Sunny and Larry together with Doc down that all of you guys got along, but that Sonny really got a kick out of you. Like I think sometimes when you would go into certain things, you could see that he was intent, like on listening. And I don't know, I thought the dynamic between you and Sunny. And Doc, of course, as well was great there.

And Sonny and Sam and Frank are the all-time radio. booth, and by the way, for those of you listening, Frank Herzog will be on my radio show tomorrow morning on the team 980 at 835, talking about all of those years in the booth through all the championship years working with Sonny Jurgensen. But, God, I mean, it was always enjoyable to watch you guys call a game from, you know, just standing behind you. And I could always tell that he really, I think you probably felt the same way, but I could tell that he really respected your opinion and your, takes during those games. It was mutual and I loved sunny and it was amazing to work with them. All right.

Have a good weekend. We'll chat next week. See you, Kev. All right. We're done for the day. Great stuff from Coolly as always. Back tomorrow with Tommy.